what's problem and I didn't want Study I wanted to take of I wanted a Ceramics I can pretty much guarantee you that wake up the art Department, please. The sounds of registering for classes are familiar to many of us at this time of year. There are about 1 million students kindergarten through 12th grade entering the state's Public Schools this fall that sounds like a lot and it is but one fact is causing great concern. The number of pupils in the state is declining at all levels. The result is that many school districts must cut budgets and that means that staff and programs are being cut. The reason is very simple since there are fewer students. If you were teachers and programs are near the goal is to make the reductions in an orderly fashion. So that parent-teacher and perhaps most importantly the student does not suffer for about the next hour. We will look at enrollment Trends in the Twin Cities area, especially the Minneapolis and Saint Paul districts. We will talk with superintendents principals and teachers about what US parents and students going to expect this year. cicada for Metal Manufacturing Throwdown You have to have a study. The declining enrollments caught many districts unprepared School administrators are trying to catch up the administrators and elected board members must plan with an eye to the Future because it appears that declining enrollment is the trend for at least five years do superintendents. Most keenly aware of the problem are George Jung of the Saint Paul school district and Ray Orbison in Minneapolis. St. Paul Minneapolis lost about 2,000. I asked young and Artisan to describe what they believe the trend for their district will be late enrollment decline for Saint Paul. It started years ago mattafact as early as 1970 or 71 at the younger ages kindergarten first grade through the system. We see the effect of it than our Junior and Senior High School's what is a Trenta declining trend has been established and then the information we have indicates that it will continue until at least 1980 or 81. Ian then it gets a little cloudy it could the tail off at that time and remain constant. There are others who believe that it may plateau in about 80 or 81 and then an 85 or 86 start back up again, but the trend has been established. We are declining and that will continue until the early 1980s. Anyway, our projections indicated that we were going to decline something in the neighborhood of 2002 2500 students, which would bring our enrollment down into the 48,000 range for kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment is going to continue to decline our study of the eye pupil enrollment situation indicates that Beyond 5 years. It's very difficult to project and we're reasonably accurate on the total District projections and we are going to continue to decline at approximately the rate of 2 to 2,000 to 2500 students per year. We enter Paid to the Minneapolis public school K12 enrollment will be will level off at about forty thousand students in the 50 year from now call Superintendent young says the most devastating part of declining enrollments is the loss of State 8th state aid figure is about $1,000 per student, which means the decline of 1000 in st. Paul is a loss of about 1 million dollars from The District's budget young and Harbison said school officials from the metro area, ask the Minnesota Legislature for help and they got some there has been Improvement in the State Farm it significant Improvement and it is certainly very helpful and it doesn't solve the problem and I believe however that the group has been appointed by the legislature to take a look at the states, not with a view of craps changing a very significant leave a future. Basically, I'll describe it that the system that they put in place was one called three year averaging of Decline and this mess Additional funds that meant that while we were declining the number of students could be recognized over a. Of three years on an averaging basis. This gives a school district a chance to more orderly phase into the financial conditions that are necessary when you're have a declining enrollment have any service has been hurt to have you had to decrease counseling psychiatric evaluations. Testing program has anything gone by the boards the answer to that is yes, we have cut back substantially and the number of a teacher aides that we have in the schools. We have cut back on counseling with cut back on Health Services. We have cut back on the purchase of textbooks as matter fact, we're purchasing very few new text books at all. Be cut back on. So that there's been a very serious a cutback know we've had to make cuts and primarily are cuts are in people 85% of our budget goes for personnel on the other 15% is for equipment and heat and lights utilities Insurance. These are the kinds of items that are very difficult to cut but the only way that you can cut them as if you just closed school buildings closed space. So most of the cuts half have to do with the cutting back of the number of personnel and that's what we've done. We reduce our teaching staff commensurate with the loss of student enrollment. We have reduced the total number of teachers and When we first became aware of how difficult our budget situation would be both this year and last year because of state law we had to do preliminary notifications if we're going to do any layoffs so both last year and this year, we notified our probationary teachers and administrators that they might not have positions but in both cases in both years weary employed all of those people all of those staff members and so we have not had to go through any layoffs procedures with any probationary or tenured people many of the districts around have had to do some very extensively off. So with tenured teachers as many as 10 and 11 years in the system. We've had to cut back on some services. And we've had extensive reductions in janitorial services by closing out space. We've had a reductions in our clerical Services. We've had heavy reductions and administrators both at the district level and at the school level and almost every area of personnel has maintained and has had to I have some kind of a cutback in it. And of course this has meant a reduction of services had to cut back in the number of services that we give in that area of art education for example were struggling right. Now. You mentioned the testing program. We're going to try to maintain our testing program. We did some cut back in the counseling and guidance area, but that's been very minimal. We started out with a heavier cut and we reinstated some of that so it will be at nearly the I'm level that it's been in the past 2 years will hear more from superintendent's young and Arvest in a bit later on Rising costs to parents fundamental schools and the future of schools. Not every District in the metro area has fewer students. Some of them are growing. One of them is Anoka where Lu finches superintendent. Essential growth and students enrolled in the last 12 to 15 years inspectors almost phenomenal growth that is now plateaued. We're holding our own we're not declining. We're not growing rapidly either projection show that we might inch forward another words gross likely in the next four to five years, but there will not be any substantial growth has least as we see it right now a few metro area districts are growing some rapidly, but most are declining School enrollments in what are known as the first ring of suburbs around Minneapolis are declining precipitously the peak School population in St. Louis Park for example was about 11,000 student seven years ago this year. There are about four thousand fewer students St. Louis Park assistant superintendent, Robert Ramsey. There's some indication that perhaps the enrollment will level off in the neighborhood of 5055 hundred students. But the loss of students in the Bloomington district has been more rapid than most a superintendent Fred Atkinson explains the year of 1969 and 70 when we had over 25,000 students. We open School this year with just a little over 18,000. So you see we bought some 7,000 students and they 7 years are projections. Do I wish I was going on for the next four or five years at the same trend of decline except we have experienced this year a lessening of that because of a building boom start saying Western Bloomington. Single family lights in the number of development for multiple units in our West Side. So we had expected to lose around 1,500 this year and at this point it looks like I'll be around 1,200. So there is some light at the end of the tunnel with this new growth and so far as but I'm sure we'll continue at someone a lower rate of declining the weather next four or five-year Bloomington school officials and parents are trying to decide what to do some of the actions they must take her obvious schools must be closed teachers laid off and programs cut but deciding how to do it is difficult to now we've had a number of committees working on this and then we have over the last 4 years now have closed at three elementary schools. We have been experiencing a decline in her Junior High's and and we'll see that happen again in her senior high schools in the year to so I board has organized and appointed now a new long-range. Planning task force of citizens and teachers and administrators and board members to pull together our past studies and projections and we are rum have hired a Consulting Services outside Consultants. I was to give us leadership here. The outside consultant has educational Management Services of Edina District officials are asking them to help with the transition from growth to decline. They will charge the Bloomington District about $20,000 for their services building staff and programs all must be cut Bloomington officials are hoping that the concept of middle schools will help resolve the surplus of buildings in the junior high schools the car spot that does that take away a large portion of our elementary children of a closing several elementary schools at that time, so they're frozen Go to that terms of the best educational environment for our children Bloomington. Superintendent. Fred Atkinson. Every District uses a different method to decide how and where the cuts will be made superintendents George Jung of Saint Paul and Ray Orbison of Minneapolis describe. There's our board of education has worked out a process that it has used for the last several years has been for the board itself along with a lot of input staff community in Saint to establish a list of goals for the district and objectives to delete those goals and then temperature relate the expenditures priority or a way to determine if we have to cut where will we start cutting first? And where will be cut the last ball and that's why we follow that process that kind of process. I'm starting the third year in the district. And when I first came Midway in the year two years ago, we were in the budget-making process and we were faced with a deficit that could have been as high as 8 to 10 million dollars at that time and we ended up cutting nearly 5 million dollars from the expenditure budget as we did get in this past year and I said it was very important to get community involvement and we did we did it through advisory budget advisory committees in each of the areas the district the district is divided into the east west and North areas. And so they played a very important part in bringing their messages to the board this year again that was done. We also had a committee that was appointed by the Board of Education that was kind of an overall committee. Are citizens committee on public education that's a long ago established entity and the district and and a very positive and constructive force for education in Minneapolis. Also did its own budget study. Well as I had to scratched out by my homeroom so I can have these other classes changes because these these three were it's tough enough to be a school board member or district superintendent forced to make group decisions about school budgets, but the effects of those decisions are felt in the classroom Harding is the largest High School in Saint Paul and Roman Pete that 2500 during the 1975-76 school year this year 2200 students will register 11 teachers have been dropped JW Bothwell Harding's principal says the supply budget is half that of two years ago anticipated budget for the coming school year will be approximately 55 to 66% of what our budget was two years ago in the 1975 to 76 school year has not even take into account to the inflation Factor. So if you take the inflation factor into account if it would appear our budget is approximately 50% of what it was two years ago. Bothwell says no classes have been cut yet, but whole industrial Arts science business and art courses have been severely curtailed school like Harding where we do have a large number of alternative programs and vocational education programs. Is a school simply because of this that have higher class and so in the end we will feel the pinch more than other schools who are running. Let's say a more General kind of an educational program Bothwell said part of the reason he doubts he will have to cut classes is due to the initiative and what he calls creative ability of the school staff to utilize Community Resources. We have solicited from both our parents and from our community. Types of Expendables that both the homes and Industry feels that they may no longer need and we have received some help in this area that David and I are our home act apartment. a number of parents have set in fruits and vegetables where the students have you as this is an experience. They've been canning here at school. They've helped do canning for some of the some of the people in the community. The the school keeps part of the the can materials to use in their courses for their supplies and then Returns the balance of it to the the person who is providing the fruits and vegetables that's been a worthwhile thing to mention. Now that you're planning to register this week about 2,200 students and that's down 300 from your all-time high of 2500 in the 1975-76 school year has that drop in enrollment witnessed. Also a decline in the number of teachers that you have on staff here yesterday. We have a total staff. Have a hundred. Repeat that a total staff of 112. What are Peak enrollment of 2500 so we are down approximately 12 staff members? We have taken a cuts and reductions throughout almost all departments, except the very small apartments where you simply could not cut so we have today because we are Allied school not had to cut any programs. We have cut one or two stamp people from each of Our Lives Department students involved in sports in the Saint Paul District pay a $10 participation fee per sport to help defray the cost of coaches and officials at Harding the custodial staff has been reduced there were twenty-five teacher aides. Now there is one the school band director is paid for only two-thirds of his work Harding owns $100,000 worth of audio-visual materials, but funds for somebody to coordinate the programs were cut so the AV director That are present is not paid any additional money for that responsibility. So the only thing that we can do and turn is to have him teach pure. And release him from some of his teaching responsibilities so that he can continue on as a Bee director. Another concern is our school newspaper budget was cut from 16 issues to 6 issues and you just cannot have a a worthwhile experience for students if they can only produce 6 issues a year. So again, I we have to finance out of funds that we raise an additional issues. So I total cost of funding these four programs means that we have to raise something like $2,200 a year through various fundraising activities to continue the activities in spite of the Valiant efforts on your part and that of the staff. 2 try to keep the cuts away from the people area that the total overall picture for a for a comprehensive education in the classroom and in the extra curricular areas as well as some of the special help programs has been reduced substantially in and you simply couldn't expect to get as Comprehensive High School experience as this year as my child might have expected in 1970 creasing me more difficult to provide the same kinds of services. We are making. Some progress we have found that our PTSA here at Harding has been very instrumental in trying to provide support to the school leave the good participation and support from our parents and in just a number of activities in and around the building and they they have shown a concern and a willingness to assist us because of some of the problems that we are facing. So in some respects these problems have helped maybe to bring me the community in the school closer together because they have a common feeling yes to The problems that we're facing and that they can only be solved by working together cooperatively and jointly and trying to to deal with these particular problems in what ways do the students respond to less teachers. Is there more freedom for them to they screw off more or do they take more responsibility and in governing themselves since there aren't as many people to watch them. I really feel that last year. Which was my seventh year as principal at Harding that we found that our students and showed more positive leadership than at any other time in the past and factored Add graduation my theme for my talk to the graduates was to commend them and the large number of students that show that leadership for are having a good school year many of the activities in and around the schools. These students assumed far more leadership and planning and running those activities and we found that it just wasn't friends since the the student council a particular student council here at Harding has a membership of about twenty-five, but the student council would involve large numbers of students in a lot of their activities. So it went far beyond the student council where maybe we had fifty to a hundred students that showed a great deal of leadership for the various activities around the building. So damn despite the excruciating circumstances principal Bothwell of Harding High. Thanks teachers students and parents are rising to the occasion and he reports that benefit performances by the school's Aqua skate and drill teams will help the plant the money cut from the extracurricular budgets, even with the threat of unemployment hanging over some of them teachers must continue to offer the best education their skills and time permit. The plight of one of those teachers will illustrate the point. She was laid off for job at the ethnic Cultural Center the Minneapolis School District. It was part of the Intergroup Education Program Center for teachers that stressed multi-ethnic and multiracial and non-sexist themes and education. He spoke with Neil Saint Anthony. This woman can send it to a taped interview with us. However, she asked that her name not be mentioned. It will suffice to say that she had several years teaching experience with the district and social studies at the secondary level. She has worked on several special projects for the school district as well. The ethnic Cultural Center was threatened with termination last spring. Minneapolis school board and administration was really in a bind because I had to make cuts and they wanted to make Cuts farthest away from the classroom or the children, which I think they did and ours being a center for teacher training that was obviously in consideration for a cut because it was far away from children. Although I think obviously teachers directly affect kids how much of the program was retained. Obviously there was some cutting no because you lost your job back to teacher and there were three positions that were cut three teacher positions that will cut. How many people stayed for people stayed and then the three human relations people stayed in the department is now combined not working separately. Were you offered another job within the district? So essentially you didn't know what you would do after last spring Three Springs at you. Didn't know if you would have a job come fall. Are you teaching now? And when did you get that job? Right in like two weeks before school started in August. So you must have lived a sort of tenuous existence during the summer wondering about if you were going to work sessional job Hunter on I know how to write a resume now, and I applied all over but I You know, I just know what it's like social studies is tight Minneapolis hasn't hired social studies secondary in The Last 5 Years and the first ring suburbs have not either and the outer ring suburbs, very few to social studies is one of the tightest Public School field. Do you consider yourself lucky to have landed the job in the forest lake district. There are so many unemployed. Social studies teachers. What would you have done had not you gotten the job. I would have worked part-time, Minnesota and going to school full-time. Are you trying to advance your degree in education 495 days or one semester and because I am a establish sub in the district and most everyone knows me. I am confident. I would have been able to go out all 95 days and I would have done that along with going to school. Cuz I really enjoy being a Minneapolis but still that isn't really a full-time work. What is that a half time or something like that? It's temporary employment. For example, I was on unemployment for a while and still substitute teaching because it's temporary employment and I just reported to the state every day. I stopped and they advised me to stay on unemployment because it is so tenuous do hold any grudges with a district for cutting you from the program and offering you nothing more than a temporary work. Know if I saw other people being hired. Instead of me. I might be a little upset but I know they have not hired social studies in many years and you know that while I was in Minneapolis, I made many friends and they were good to me and I and I got a lot of experience from Minneapolis and they really wish me well, I mean people there wanted me to get a contract but you know, what can I do so really then you don't think that you were arbitrarily cut but It was more a case of you were a victim of circumstance. There are other disadvantages to cutting teachers seniority, of course protect some teachers from cutbacks. It follows that as the younger teachers are dismissed. There are fewer new people new ideas. The teacher who left the Minneapolis district is concerned that few new women are teaching social studies leaving at a male-dominated discipline. That is a problem that Minneapolis has the there were women and essentially they are retiring and they're not being replaced not because they don't want to replace women teachers. It's just that they don't have a need right now. But meanwhile the ratio of women social studies teachers at the cellular level is going down and down and that bothers me. There are buildings that have virtually no women on their staff and that does bother me. But there's no I don't see any discrimination so you don't suspect a sexist attitude on anyone's part. Most social studies teachers have dropped off and gone into other careers. I'm kind of one of the hanger ons. So I just don't want to do that dropped out the career simply because the jobs went there. Right now I just got frustrated or they were. The waves or see what was going to happen one thing that's I think situation and unhealthy situation that comes out of this is districts are not replacing. They're not having new girl come in the district. I think they're becoming slightly stagnant because new teachers are not coming in and I don't think it's a case of discrimination. It's just the way finances are right now, but I think there's a real danger that we're many districts teachers. The youngest teacher might be 40. Everyone is 40 and over and there's nothing you know no negative connotation on older teachers, but I do think that you need a balance and A lot of districts aren't getting it right now. I don't really know what they can do. Is that the case at the world District where you are now? I know it seems that that district has very high turnover, but I see that Definitely the case in a lot of smaller districts because teachers will come in and start out there and then go somewhere else. So they're or they're all decide. They don't want to continue most teachers get their start in smaller setting especially these days when turbines cities just are not hiring new teachers. This your Forest Lake hired 48 new teachers, which is very high. But it's a growing district and Minneapolis is not a grind disturb. It's a declining District. So you really can't compare the two in terms of hiring streamlining any organization through prudent budgeting is desirable. But in the Twin Cities Districts The Cutting has been severe the amount of instructional time and material a lot of tweets students have been reduced substantially many teachers dread the trip to their mailbox each spring day fearful that they may find notes from the district regretfully saying that there will be no work the following term some teachers are resentful claiming that they are used as Pawns in the financial battles waged among the district 2 school board and the legislature last spring several hundred st. Paul teachers were told they would not be tired this fall immediately a teacher support group was formed Jim Go latch a teacher at Battle Creek Elementary School is the group's chairman. The latch is also active in the st. Paul teacher Federation. We think that the district did this for two reasons number one. They did it for the legislation or for the legislature to increase their funding number to we think they did it because we're in a negotiation. So we think yes, it was a political maneuver and that is a matter of fact the teachers are pretty angry and apprehensive about it because they think that not that many people should have been laid off know how many teachers last spring were informed that they were to be laid off for this school year. 304 304 and how many actually were hired back all that 11:00 right now all but 11. Correct were taken back into the system. So if they're rehired, what's the what's the bitch there? Well, the problem is if you've lost your job and had to spend all summer worrying about whether you have a job or not. You're going to be extremely upset and a lot of the people were even though many of them. Did Ron employment compensation about 6 p.m. But the problem is with morale in the building when you tell 300 teachers around April that their jobs are eliminated and tell them that they probably won't come back and going to be on the unemployment rolls morale in the buildings was down to nothing really now. We've got the same problem this year because it's those same teachers if there's a layoff next spring they say I'm going to be on that list again in our committee is attempting to do some work in order to see where there are other areas that the budget can be cut rather than cutting back teachers. We don't feel there's any way that the school district would open this year with us 340 Church on the way off. Are the class sizes would have been so large that people would Revolt it so do us it's evident showed that it was a political maneuver. It was they didn't hire the people that we lost our attrition those that retired and those that left the city. They didn't hire those people back until the week before they didn't give the administration authorization to hire him back until the week before school started and they said Point Blank that they were doing this until the contract was negotiated. So we were saying this is one form of blackmail and education the child not to be held as blackmail to a teacher negotiation contract. What recommendations does your group does the mft as well as care make to the administration and to the superintendent as far as putting more teachers to work? Where should the cutbacks be then? Phone number one we feel that if there are any cutbacks we ought to sit down with them and look at the method that the cutbacks are made. If we were involved in the decision if we sat down with them, then we think that it would be much easier for the teachers to take rather than they're saying for example, 300 people are going to be laid off tomorrow this happen. So rapidly that nobody knew it was going to have your ear saying that you found out about it by reading the newspaper that we found out it at a school board meeting is about what it amounted to nobody knew that this was going to happen in St. Paul at all. So we feel we said right along that there was enough money in the same Paul budget in order to handle their present cost. It wasn't the need for the cut back even after the legislature funded the school district to the present level that they're at. Now these people weren't brought back until well. They brought 240 back just before the school year was out but many of them work. Back on the teaching rules until two or three weeks later. So the money was there. And even after the money was there they withheld those 66 1/2 positions for attrition in order to wait for negotiations. So, you know, our answer is the money was always there wasn't a matter of the money not being there when the layoffs were made the legislature had projected to particular bills the money that would come in and with those projections alone, for example, that basic student aid the upward projection of that alone would tell them that they wouldn't had to cut three hundred people. So you're saying that even though they knew they could hire That number of teachers they held off as a political gesture not only to the legislature but there's a form of holding the jobs over the heads of the teachers when it came time to bargain for contracts exactly that you're running rough ER position to bargain when you don't hold a job exactly. As a matter of fact that we are still being told at the bargaining table that that the teachers are brought back now and that we should lessen our demands. So this is the other side of the coin going further from when they told us they're withholding the jobs until negotiation is over now school is started a negotiation isn't completed. So they're saying that that now that our demands should be lessened because all of the teachers are back on the rolls. The latch is critical of Saint Paul Central Administration Ford planning methods, but he is also critical of what he calls mismanagement in a system as large as we haven't seen fall they have what is called decentralization of administer. So many local administrators have the right to make decisions on their own now, every administrator is not going to handle every situation correctly and we did have two or three cases of that. I know of a people that showed up at their building the opening day and we're told that they didn't we're going to be working there that year. Now. This was the first I heard of it then they had problems and in attempting to get assignments because they came to the Saint Paul Federation of teachers in and ask what the story was. They said they know they're getting paid but they're not there to get paid their there to work. I hope that that in the future that layoffs are made after a much closer look is taken at class size at the funding rather than just going to head and laying off teachers for a specific reasons as I stated political reasons. I understand education is a political business and I am a sort of a political person myself so I can understand they're doing that. But I don't think that the school board's understand the trauma that they put teachers through and laying them off every year. People that up for example in St. Paul was 7 and 8 years tenure got their notices. Now, you can imagine working for an employer for 8 years and having no idea that this is going to happen and bang the rug is cut out from under you some of those people were really upset and when that happens during the school year it kills the morale in the building and education was right downhill. I think it could be handled much better than it has been in the past. The other thing that I don't like about this whole situation is the non-tenured teacher the teacher that is in the city is in their first three years of service that teacher has no rights whatsoever. That teacher doesn't dare say anything because they have no rights including due process that we went to court on this particular issue in St. Paul and found out that those teachers under the 10-year law have nothing to say they can be They can be let go on the 1st of April for no reason and nobody has to give a reason so those people are in particularly poor position and afraid to say anything and afraid to do anything this I don't like either and you think the school administration uses them to their advantage. Well, they are I've seen it happen in many cases things have happened that dad they're told and don't forget you are not on tenure yet and your 10-year depends on my valuation. Yes a teacher at Battle Creek Elementary School in St. Paul and chairman of a teacher support group. Let's take a look. Okay. So far we've been talking about school district budgets. What about your budget as a parent? You can expect that your out-of-pocket cost for sending your son or daughter to school in the Twin Cities area will be higher. I asked superintendents young of Saint Paul and arvesen of Minneapolis. If cost for hot lunches and fees for extracurricular activities will be higher starting with the first school lunch program. The answer is yes. There is an increase in the cost for the students of for lunches. In other areas, though. The parent won't find increase out-of-pocket expenses for season in in school. So we're not permitted to charge fees. We do charge and athletic fee and as many other districts do as well and that is being questioned by the state department education whether or not it's legal. And so even that female may go by the board. Where are the parents will experience a direct out-of-pocket The increased expenses as the parent goes to buy things for their children to go to school clothing and all that all that stuff. We did not increase the price for school lunches this year. So that will be exactly the same as it was in previous years. And so far we have not in the Minneapolis schools gone to a program where we charge students for the participation and various kinds of activities and many districts have done this. We feel that it should be the free and open right of students to participate without having to pay a fee. I hope that that can remain that way. There are two new fundamental schools in Minneapolis-Saint Paul the back-to-basics movement among some parents is at least partly responsible for their creation. I asked young and Harbison if it means that parents are unhappy with the education their children are receiving Believe that is being asked on a large scale. I think a significant number of parents believe that the former kind of discipline in the school more emphasis placed on reading and writing and then use of numbers would be helpful to their children. There's another significant number of parents who feel strongly that learning to read is important, but it feel that there are other and better ways to talk about it. I think it's Saint Paul to point out that has been in operation now since 1971, I believe still has a long long waiting lists of people would like to get into it or Webster Magnet School Webster Elementary has a long list of people who want to get into that school middle school at just started but I anticipate the you-know-what in a year of operation let there be a list of people who want to get into that school. I like what the system but we're trying to do in Saint Paul. First of all recognize that children who have burning different styles and that if one can style of organization that the child has the best chance, you know to go to proceeding to learn we have children coming out of the open school who are as a respectful of adults and as well disciplined as children, you would find anywhere and we'll have children coming out of the Benjamin Mays Learning Center of who will be the same and each one is following a very different pattern of assessment of student achievement in the Minneapolis schools is that it's been relatively High compared with Urban centers Across the Nation. I did propose last January in a report to the board that we establish some fundamental schooled and I proposed it for this reason that the Minneapolis has become known among school districts in the nation as a school district that provides a great many options are alternatives for their students and we have opened schools continuous progress schools contemporary schools free Schools Montessori schools and so on but we didn't have any of what we might call the fundamentals type schools and I felt that this kind of completed the picture of Alternatives that were available and I know it was sooner proposed it then I discovered that there were groups of parents that had been working on this in various parts of the city and they immediately came forward to express their interest. In fact, we just had an outpouring of interest. And so we moved ahead very quickly with our plans and I'm pleased to say that we now have two fundamental schools established high in the Minneapolis School District 1. We call our North Area Fundamental School. It's at Cleveland Elementary School. And the other one is the West area Fundamental school and it's at Barton the schools have been oversubscribed we have waiting list for both schools. So that indicates some level of Interest the I think the thing that's different. Although these schools have the same basic curriculum that other schools have the differences in emphasis and and process it's a little more structured School than any of our other schools. There's a heavy emphasis on the partnership between parent and teacher and school art teachers in our students and our parents are going to work in a team like Arrangement and we ask parents to make a commitment that they would indeed be involved with Youngsters education in a partnership arrangement. We think that's going to be one component that will bring very good results. We like to extend that to every school. Neighborhood control is a phrase that we hear use more and more I think five parents and Educators as well. That doesn't mean that the Arabs a large school district with a uniform program and centralized planning is on the way out or is being modified you think. Oh, I think they'd modification of that is certainly underway the abyss it's no longer possible. To forget the much support for a decision. I'm planning to take place for CNA superintendent's office. And then everybody will do it has the directive that's so that's long gone and it is for a number of years back in the early very early 1970s problems did study them did make recommendations. So we've had an umbrella committees task force group sequester advisory councils as a matter of fact the last school year. I had one of our people make count of the number of of non School Employees adults were involved in school Affairs. I think the count there was something like four or five thousand people and what that in a given month to her working on one thing or another related to the Saint Paul Public Schools. That is becoming more formalized that it was in the past as a result of new legislation bringing about the so-called / plasma processes planning evaluation and Reporting by law school boards are required to organize citizen groups to establish goals and objectives for the schools. And we're well along the way in St. Paul as matter fact, I think we're further along than most of their districts in Minnesota cuz we've been doing it for years, but now it becomes much more highly formalized that it was before and institutionalized. No, I don't think it is. Although I know exactly what you're talking about because in some urban districts across the country. They've gone to a mode of operation where there has been a neighborhood Council or a neighborhood board that for all practical purposes has operated or managed that's cool even to the extent of selecting and hiring teachers and principals and other staff members and giving been given the authority to let them go if they were not satisfied with him. I'm not sure how that has worked. But I don't think that that contributes to the best education for young people and I believe very strongly in involvement. But that involvement must be in an orderly process in our democratic system and I still think the duly elected representatives of the people the Board of Education have to be the policy making legislative body of a school district now in the Minneapolis system, we emphasize very heavily the involvement of parents at the school site level and in some cases it with project schools are with Federal project schools. They have some very heavy responsibilities on development of program in the sign off on the final kind of program that they're going to have buddy in all schools. We want parent participation and we've asked for it in relationship to development of discipline policy and procedures were going to ask for it particularly this year as we move into the implementation of what we call the / legislation declining enrollments. Cost and changing attitudes among parents are three important factors in determining which schools will be like in the future. I asked young and Harbison if the schools in the future will be different from what they are now, but I think for all the reasons you mentioned you're not going to mention additional one. They're going to be much different the manager decline. We were brought up. I was trained in all my experience has been the management of expansion now, we're faced with an entirely different situation and then we're learning how to do that when people are learning how to cope with that helped bring about changes the neighborhood School idea, which many of us still support. I strongly that is is is going by the wayside cuz we had to close Elementary School enrollment decline in the neighborhood school is not as close to where people live as it used to be. End of the budgetary restraint, you know, the financial restraints will bring about other kinds of changes. We we could see as time goes on people teach ratios are going up where they used to be some years ago and far away is to bring additional monies into the schools. That's in that day. That won't happen. This is reason which we haven't mentioned that that's a shortage of energy and energy conservation, but I can see as state and federal governments of begin to place requirements on us change. Our living styles are our ways of transporting ourselves. This could have really profound impact on the way schools are organized. I think there's a potential for schools to be quite different whether or not that's going to happen. I think is a matter of deliberate effort on our part. I think it's been a very wholesome development in Minneapolis to the development of the alternative programs. So that students and parents have options. We think all children are different that they have different styles of learning different abilities that have to be developed. And so I think this is a natural but there are many other avenues in which we can go into an and particularly at the high school level as students are finishing up their educational careers in the public schools will think there is a greater opportunity for work in the community the total community business industry the community itself the professional community and we have been looking at ways that we can work with them and make them a partner in the total educational program. I think the full fruition of that is yet to come in the full directions are yet to come it has a role in what we call Career Education, Oroville. National Training but more than that his it has a role in motivating students to know the kinds of learning that are going to be essential for them to succeed in life. Not only in the rotation but in their life totally my schedule What do you need my counselors in here and now my schedule is all messed up, so I didn't sign up for math 10. I did not sign up for food one. I don't want to go with me cuz I have other classes. I have to go in there before another school year before them superintendent George Jung of Saint Paul and Roy Orbison of Minneapolis another school year begins. We know the founding fathers viewed public education as a right quality and extended that education was a decision that citizens were to make Sometime this year anyway, the decisions that citizens must make are becoming more complex. Nothing less than the education of the Next Generation depends upon the quality of these decisions. The technical director for this program was Paul Kelly. The program was produced by Dan Olsen and myself Neil Saint Anthony tape cassette copies of this program are available for a small charge call to 911 222. If you live in the Twin Cities area, if you live outside the metropolitan area call one 800-652-9700. This is Minnesota Public Radio a listener supported service.